My Lai No Accident, Says Soldier Who Was There

DUBLIN, GA. — Many of the members of Charlie Company weep when they talk about My Lai. Kenneth Hodges doesn't.

''I dealt with it when it happened, and I've dealt with it since,'' he said. ''If I had to do it over, with the same kind of training and the kind of person I am, I'd do it the same way.''

Hodges, then an Army sergeant, was a squad leader March 16, 1968, when American soldiers converged on My Lai 4 in Quang Ngai province of South Vietnam. Its name remains a synonym for wartime atrocities.

According to later accounts, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, attacked My Lai 4 - one of five hamlets named My Lai - early in the morning as most of the villagers ate breakfast. By the end of the day, hundreds of women, children and elderly men had been slaughtered and the village destroyed.

Not until November 1969 were the events of that day made public. Top Army officers denied responsibility for or knowledge of the massacre.

But My Lai was no accident, Hodges said. ''It was a well-planned, coordinated operation. We were given orders to kill and destroy everything there. If we had disobeyed, we could have been shot. Besides, we were told not to take prisoners.''

'I haven't been cleared' Hodges was charged with murder and rape for My Lai. Although charges were dropped and he received an honorable discharge, he does not feel vindicated.

''It's been my dream and prayer that I could tell my side of the story,'' he said. ''I haven't been cleared. I've been left with the label of murderer, of child murderer.

Hodges, now employed at the Carl Vinson Veterans Administration Medical Center in Dublin, lives in the area where he grew up - Buckeye in eastern Laurens County.

Almost immediately after graduating from high school in 1963, Hodges joined the Army. By the time he was discharged, he had been a soldier a little more than 10 years.

Charlie Company trained for Vietnam in Hawaii. Hodges' platoon leader was Lt. William Calley, ultimately the only man convicted of criminal charges in connection with My Lai.

''He was a good soldier,'' Hodges said. ''Young lieutenants weren't very popular in Vietnam.''

When Hodges talks of My Lai, his words echo those Calley spoke in his defense.

''We were told to destroy the enemy,'' Hodges said. ''The enemy was never given an age or a race or a sex. It was just the enemy. You are just as dead if you're killed by a 9-year-old as you are if you're shot by a Viet Cong soldier.''

Hodges had been in Vietnam three months when his platoon hit My Lai. The hamlet was in an area called ''Pinkville'' because it was colored red on Army maps. It was considered a stronghold for the 48th Viet Cong Regiment.

''Two or three weeks before My Lai, we were on patrol - 1st and 2nd platoon of Charlie Company - and one of our men was killed by sniper fire,'' he said. ''Then a few days later, a patrol walked through a village and into a mine field. There must have been 23 or 24 people killed or badly wounded. We saw our friends blown apart.

''Alpha and Bravo companies had the same experience. They had to be brought out in armored tanks. None of the villagers gave any warning.''

Extra ammunition Charlie Company had been told it was going back to Pinkville. ''I remember Capt. Ernest Medina saying we would get revenge for our fallen comrades,'' Hodges said, adding that the ''revenge'' comment may have been calculated to make the men angry enough to kill.

''They informed us that the psychological operations department would fly a plane over the village and broadcast in Vietnamese explaining to the people that if they were sympathetic to the South Vietnamese government, they should leave,'' he said.

He believes the warning was understood ''because the enemy we expected to find wasn't there.'' He said villagers may have been Viet Cong sympathizers ''but the real enemy - the military-aged men - were nowhere to be found.''

''We also were told that artillery would fire on the village for a half hour before the helicopters flew the troops in. Alpha Company would move in the night before in a blocking position. Bravo would be on the beach to the east. Charlie Company would be on the west. Then we would start the sweep through the village. The battleship New Jersey was to be on call with 16-inch guns trained on My Lai.

''As we approached, we thought we were being fired on. Now I'm not sure because the sound helicopter blades make as they slow down is a lot like gunfire.

''The helicopters landed, and we took cover. The helicopters moved away, and we moved on line,'' he said. ''I got my men up and moved them into position and awaited orders. Then we began to search the hooches, or straw huts, and kill the inhabitants - young women, old women, kids. It was believed that the people in the village were Viet Cong - the enemy - or Viet Cong sympathizers.''